It's a crime, not a war.

I don't often [ab]use my position as the publisher of content on
www.quaker.org. Today, I feel led to do so.

The people who did this and their associates have committed a
crime, not an act of war. Friends should encourage people to think of
it this way. Instead of giving in to the war fever, instead of
listening to the media's cries of "WAR!", we should be looking for
evidence and clues. And we should present those to a court, possibly
the court of public opinion. The criminals should be given their
chance in court, just like all criminals in a free society.

Perhaps the criminals are being sheltered by a rogue state. If
that is the case, then maybe, just maybe a military action will be
needed to extract the criminal from its protection. But again, it
won't be a war, it will be an enforcement action.

It should be simple to position this act as a crime, not a war.
When someone says "This means war!!! We must have REVENGE", just ask
them "Against who?" Point out that individuals were behind this
heinous act. In a free country, individuals are responsible for their
actions, and those individuals can be brought to justice. Point out
that maybe these people want us to overreact -- to go in swinging.
Point out that maybe they have failed to arouse their people and are
seeking to get us to do so.

Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P Murrah Office Building. He was
accused, tried, found guilty, sentenced, and a form of justice was
attained. No war against his home state was contemplated.

Friends are anti-war, to be sure, but we are not now and have never
been against justice. Indeed, war is its own form of injustice. War
is killing people without due process.

And then, once there has been closure, we must reconsider our role
as world policeman. We need to understand why people hate us so much
that they are willing to give their lives to hurt us. Do we act in
ways that would offend us if other countries were doing them to us?
Is our foreign policy one which we would never allow one US state to
hold against another US state? Are we operating under the rule of
law? Are we carrying out the instructions of a court? Are we taking
sides in conflicts that don't involve us? Or are we acting as judge,
jury, and executioner?

It is in my mind that true evil is very rare in the world. Some
people hurt other people, yes. But for the most part they are acting
from a previous hurt (real or imaginary). They seek a justice which
may only exist in their own minds. Justice is a social relationship.
Unless we talk to the people we would war with, unless we understand
the cause of their hurt, we may never have the justice we seek.

Please spread this idea around. Forward this URL
(http://quaker.org/crime.html), talk about this idea, write letters to
the editor, call your congress-critter and demand no war without a
Congressional declaration of war. Demand that we not treat others as
we would not wish to be treated ourselves.

I am not alone in my conclusion that this is a crime. Sir Michael
Howard, the eminent British historian, says that it is a mistake
to declare this a 'war'.